Hillary Triangulates

In a Nation cover story, Greg Sargent takes a crack at debunking the “Hillary-Moves-Right” meme, making Hillary’s case to the left wing of the Democratic Party.

He points out both that she’s always been conservative in her rhetoric, and that her staunchly liberal voting record — except for on the war — hasn’t changed. And he draws an interesting comparison with her husband’s trademark tactic:

“In essence, she’s triangulating against herself: She’s revealing the common-sense-solution-embracing Hillary, in contrast to the left-wing ideologue her caricaturists gave us. It helps that Hillary, while extraordinarily shrewd and calculating, also really is hard-working, hard-headed and culturally moderate. In the end, the irony is that her effort is working not just because it’s smart politics but also because it’s largely genuine.”